Leech
by Amira Darkglass
Summary: A new girl has arrived in Gotham City, Kaely Tress (Own Character) is the newest supervillian on Batman's radar. When she discovers his identity, what will she do with that information, and will Terry figure out the average girl he eats lunch with every day is actually the beautiful woman he fights on the rooftop of Gotham every night. Please Read/Review, -Amira Darkglass
1. Chapter 1

Kaely Tress woke up to the sound of the hover way just outside her window and  
the city that had just begun to rise with the exception of the criminals that  
had their run of the town as soon as the sun slipped below the clouds. Sliding  
out of bed on her long legs she felt the cold floor meet her feet as she made  
her way to her dresser.  
After getting dressed in a cropped red tee-shirt and  
yoga pants that were a size to small (she did this on purpose so that they would  
hug her figure more tightly, Kaely was in no way financially challenged.) and  
black Nike.800s she did her makeup. Kaely applied red lipstick a shade darker  
than she probably should have and black mascara that helped bring out her warm  
brown eyes. Her freckled and slightly blemished face was sun tanned and had a  
healthy glow about it. Her hair was quickly scraped back into a ponytail to keep  
it out of the way, because who wants their hair to be blowing in their face all  
day? Reasoned Kaely. Checking the temperature, she decided that a jacket to keep  
her from freezing to death was probably a good idea. As she was fingering  
through her numerous articles of clothing to retrieve a coat when she caught a  
glimpse of her costume.  
A one piece white colored suit with shading controls  
on the left sleeve to change the color darker if necessary, although enhanced by  
software to make it more sturdy in a fight most of the work Kaely did was her  
own skill. A white mask that was made to fit her face perfectly, well, not this  
face her other one.  
Kaely's childhood had been ridiculously complicated, and  
the easiest solution to this was to become like everybody else. Which is what  
Kaely learned to do, so well in fact that she could take an attribute, physical  
or mental, and project it onto her self. Kaely had been desperate for money that  
everyone else seemed to have in Symetri City, so she learned to steal others'  
abilities. Politicians, soldiers, scholars, no one was safe from her powers of  
theft. Stealing soon became her life because she had no other option, that was  
when The Mistress was born. A pale, milk-skinned beauty that Kaely had  
reinvented herself to be during her nights of crime. At some point in her  
illegal career, Kaely learned that she could take away super powers. Splitting  
herself into two people, talking to animals, reading minds, and eventually  
anything that she could get her hands on. After a while the easy pickings of  
Symetri City began to bore her so she looked for competition, and the obvious  
contender flashed at her with its neon club lights and dark alley ways. Gotham  
City.  
After arranging for a flat to be bought in her dead mother's name as  
she was only seventeen. Kaely moved from Symetri to Gotham and enrolled in  
Hamilton Hill High School to give herself an alibi to why she couldn't possibly  
be a master thief.  
Closing her eyes, Kaely brought herself back up to the  
present. Places to go, people to see! She thought.  
Putting on a pair of  
diamond earrings, she avoided the gigantic pair of pearls that she wore at  
night. She grabbed her backpack before dashing out of her expensive flat and  
into her car which was a sleek black Panther 97XL with limited edition grey  
racing stripes. Kaely knew how to drive that baby faster than anyone would have  
probably even thought even possible.  
She gripped the steering wheel hard as  
she pulled out of the car park at a breakneck speed and onto the hover way.

Listening to the ancient pirate radio she had installed in her car, Kaely  
was informed by Commissioner Gordon herself that there had been a robbery on  
fourth street.  
"Jokerz are robbing the fourth street bank, requesting  
immediate assistance!"  
Kaely grinned, moving to Gotham was definitely the  
right choice for a girl such as herself. Speeding down the hover way even  
quicker because of the inevitable lack of traffic guards due to the robbery.

Pulling into the school parking lot, Kaely immediately noticed the bright  
red car that came shooting by next to her nearly taking her review mirrors off.

"What the hell?!" She cussed the driver angrily, he had nearly wrecked her  
car!  
Taking a minute to recompose herself, Kaely took a deep breath and let  
it whoosh out through her teeth. He obviously hadn't been watching anything but  
his speed, Kaely reasoned, not trying to kill me.  
She looked in a small  
mirror she kept in her bag and realized that without the conscious thought to  
change, her face had grown sharper at the angles and more intimidating. Shaking  
her head irritably, Kaely changed her face back. Grabbing her bag she exited the  
car carefully, looking out for anymore rouge drivers.  
She watched with  
interest as a thin girl with blond hair and a large, muscular guy exited the red  
Ferrari. She kissed him on the cheek but he didn't notice because he had seen  
the scratch that had been put on his car from nearly hitting Kaely.  
Because  
Kaely had added retractable spikes to her mirrors, the scratch has penetrated  
the paint job and then hit the body work beneath.  
Putting two and two  
together after what seemed hours just standing there with his mouth wide open  
like an idiot, the guy started to shout a Kaely for killing his 'beautiful  
baby'.  
"As I recall, YOU hit ME!" Kaely's temper began to escalate more and  
more with each insult hurled at her through the guys lips until suddenly she  
snapped.  
Kaely smiled and said, "Here, I'll fix it." Switching her powers to  
persuasion, she made the guy and what was probably his girlfriend turn their  
heads just long enough for her to step towards the car and touch the scratch.  
Quickly, Kaely reworked the metal and paint into covering the mark with her  
mind. Damn boy won't be able to wrap his tiny mind around that! Thought Kaely  
with triumph, she had bested this guy 1to 0.  
When he turned around to look  
for the scratch and couldn't find it, he returned to his previous I'm-an-idiot  
face. The girl turned towards me, looked me up and down and snorted thinking:  
you ain't got nothin' on me bitch.  
Kaely glared right back at her, about  
ready to slap her pretty face off into oblivion. Taking a step closer, she was  
halted by a "Hi" aimed in her direction. Turning, she a black girl with dyed  
pink pixy cut and yellow shirt, black pants, and brown combat boots.  
"Are  
you the new girl?" She asked patiently, Kaely nodded. "It's great to finally  
meet you, the teachs have been telling us about you all week!" She smiled and  
held out her hand.  
Taking it, Kaely replied, "My name is Kaely, Kaely  
Tress."  
"Mine's Maxine Gibson, but you can call me Max." Motioning to the  
agape guy and his girl friend she said sarcastically, "I see you've already met  
Nash and Blade."  
"Only when he almost hit me in his car!" Kaely cried  
indignantly.  
"Are you serious?! Well I'll try to get Blade to talk to him  
but it probably won't work... Hey, how about you sit with us during lunch? You  
could meet the rest of the gang, they're really schway."  
"Sounds great Max."  
Kaely replied happily, friends already she thought to herself.  
"Do you have  
your schedule yet?" Max asked her curiously.  
Handing Max a piece of slightly  
crumpled paper with her timetable printed on it, Max compared it to her own.

"Hmmm... Chemistry, Higher Maths, Bio, Higher English, Higher P.E., wait,  
there's such thing as 'Higher P.E.'? I thought that was just a myth, I didn't  
think that they actually called it that!"  
Kaely shrugged  
nonchalantly.  
"Turns out you have three classes with me, Higher Maths, Higher  
English, and Bio. And three classes with my friend Terry."  
"Who's Terry?"  
Kaely queried.  
"Oh, he's like my best friend he's really schway. I'll  
introduce you! Look, there he is."  
They walked towards a muscular young man  
with a tasteful brown coat, black pants and boots. He had dark hair with ice  
blue eyes so light they were almost grey, and basically one word described the  
whole of his image: handsome.  
"Hey Terry!" Max called to him, he looked up  
and waved.  
Max started talking to Terry about some kind of project that he  
needed to finish if he wanted to keep from failing Bio. All the while Kaely kept  
stealing little glances at Him, suddenly their eyes met and her cheeks began to  
turn red. Quickly though, Kaely took a deep breath and slowed her blood pressure  
enough that the color subsided.  
I wish that I could do that Max thought to  
herself grumpily, noticing the exchange between Terry and Kaely. Danna was not  
going to like this new girl one bit she though with a grimace.  
Terry on the  
other hand hadn't even noticed Kaely's reaction to their eye contact, he was  
thinking about how she must be fairly smart to have Max take such and immediate  
liking to her. Smart enough to figure out his identity like Max had? He wondered  
just a little bit frightened of the girl before him. She wasn't especially  
pretty, but she dressed like she thought she was. Which was strange for Terry  
because for him there generally was no in between for pretty and ugly but she  
fit snugly between the two categories not quite one or the other. Not able to  
put a label on her, Terry watched rather her intently oblivious to how  
uncomfortable his scrutiny was making her.  
Kaely watched as a pretty  
Asian-American girl walked up behind Terry and kissed him on the cheek. Scanning  
her, Kaely realized that she was prettier than what herself currently looked  
like, but wasn't as good looking as Max. She watched as Terry leaned into her  
kiss and Kaely stiffened when it hit her. The girl must be his girlfriend, how  
stupid could I have been to think the a guy like HIM would be single? She  
chastised herself angrily.  
Slowly Kaely's freckles began to disappear to be  
more like the girl in front of her, but when she realized what she had done she  
quickly stopped but made an executive decision not to bring them back. She  
didn't need ALL of them after all she tried to tell herself as she held back the  
impulse to change her appearance.  
"Kaely?" The girl asked, "Is that your  
name? Mine's Danna." She shook Kaely's hand.  
"Nice to meet you." No it's  
not. Kaely thought quietly to her self. A bitch, that's what you are. She could  
tell that Danna didn't like her or for that matter think anything of her. She  
had only met Danna for less than five minutes and already her presence was  
grating on her nerves. Now cut the crap so I can tell you to go to hell. Kaely  
thought angrily.  
Danna watched who she was beginning to think of as the  
'ugly girl' as she turned to examine her nails, her eyes narrowing with  
distaste. Something about this girl gave her a bad feeling, like a dog smells  
fear, Danna could smell trouble. And this Kaely was the embodiment of the word.

Noticing that the girls that she had just introduced had become the  
equivalent of a nuclear bomb, Max cleared her throat loudly. "We should probably  
get going... Like now." She told the group.  
A series of 'yeahs' and 'okays'  
could be heard as the group trooped inside for a day of learning and  
introductions.  
A couple hours later, Kaely was utterly exhausted. By the  
time lunch had come, she had seen so many new faces and listened to so many new  
voices that her senses were on overload. Higher Maths, Higher English, and Bio  
had all gone by in a flash with Max there to assist her.  
Dropping into the  
hard plastic chair at Max's lunch table, Kaely's head slammed into the table  
totally spent.  
"Is it really that bad, girl? Your not even half way trough  
day one yet!" Max asked Kaely while opening her lunch bag to reveal a PBJ  
sandwich with carrot sticks and a yogurt.  
"I... Am... So... Tired." Kaely  
finally managed to say after a couple of deep breaths.  
"Here, try this." Max  
held out a plastic glass full of a gloppy green liquid, it bubbled suspiciously.  
"It's something I have been wanting to test on a live subject..." Seeing Kaely's  
slightly freaked out look at the words 'live test subject', she added, "it's  
energy juice. Don't worry about it... It probably won't kill you."  
Kaely  
sighed and said, "How much will you pay me to drink this full cup?"  
"Fifteen  
creds." Said Max.  
"Twenty!" Chimed in Terry who had just sat down.

"Fifty." Danna said with an evil grin, she hoped that it would make Kaely  
sick. The feeling of trouble niggled her in the back of her mind, Kaely was  
getting nowhere near anything she held precious to herself, that put Terry as  
priority number one.  
Kaely grinned, "Slag it, if I die let it be on your  
conscience." Drowning it all it one gulp, Kaely drank every last drop as it  
actually tasted surprisingly good. Her body felt as if it had been electrified  
and she fell out of her chair shaking. Colors flew everywhere, white spots  
danced in the corners of her vision. And then there was technicolor, everything  
was sharper and more defined. Her energy surged back to her like a wave as she  
jumped into the air cheerleader style and did the splits, touching her toes.

"Woot!" She cried, making everyone in the cafeteria turn towards the sound  
of her voice.  
"You guys owe me fifty creds!" Kaely smiled  
enthusiastically.  
"Girl, it was totally worth it to see THAT!" Max told Kaely  
while making notes in a blue notebook.  
"Touché, Max. That was amazing."  
Terry concurred, he shot a smile at her and Kaely closed her eyes for a second  
to concentrate. Do not blush, do not blush she told herself then had an idea.  
Focussing on the many powers she kept locked away within her body and mind,  
Kaely found the one she had labeled 'mind reading'.  
She looked at Terry and  
smiled then without him noticing, she touched her foot with his. [Did she just  
smile at me? I guess she's cute, definitely smart... Danna is my girlfriend  
though... There is just something about her that's different, although, I don't  
like the way she looks at Danna. Plus I don't think that she likes very much,  
she's barely looked at me until now! Oh god, please don't lean down... Oh god  
her breasts are huge! Much bigger than Dannas. Whoa what?! Don't think that,  
don't think that! I wonder if...]  
Right then Terry moved his foot a  
little so that they were no longer touching and their connection was lost.


	2. Chapter 2

**Hi everyone, thanks for the reviews, and thanks to my first reviewer and I totally think that I will use your idea in the future! Thanks for reading!**

**-Amira Darkgass**

Leech Chapter Two

Throughout the rest of the day, Kaely watched Terry out of  
the corner of her eye. Not speaking unless spoken to, looking up from her  
notebook only to watch Terry.  
When the end of the day finally came, Kaely  
had created a picture of Terry sitting at his desk watching her out of the  
corner of his eye. Which had actually happened thought Kaely with a smug grin,  
Terry has been watching me almost as closely as I have been observing him. The  
idea that Terry might like her, made Kaely smile happily to herself.

Switching to third gear, Kaely sped home wondering if the robbery on fourth  
had been successfully thwarted by the authorities. When she got to the turn off  
for her flat, Kaely watched in awe as a black aircraft with a glowing red bat  
zoomed over her head in pursuit of a white hovercraft. The Batmobile Kaely  
thought. The vehicle was magnificent with its smooth lines and arrow dynamic  
nature Kaely guessed that the one man craft could probably take itself of to  
speeds of at least 280 MPH on a stretch.  
Still thinking about the Batmobile  
and its fantastic make, Kaely walked up the steps to her apartment in record  
time. Finishing the homework that she hasn't already completed, Kaely decided to  
take on the streets of Gotham for the first time. Getting into her suit on the  
other hand was another matter, looking at herself in the mirror she began to  
change. First her freckles faded into oblivion and her skin lightened to a shade  
akin to moonlight. She grew taller and her face more angular, next her arms,  
legs, and stomach became more muscular. Finally her lips became fuller and her  
hair changed to black as color ran down from the roots to the very end adding  
corkscrew curls at the bottom of her hair. Slipping into the suit that fit  
perfectly now, Kaely put blood red lipstick on and black eyeshadow and mascara  
to bring out her now grey eyes. Adding the final touches to her outfit by  
placing the pearl earrings in her ears and a sapphire choker necklace that had  
been given to her by someone Kaely held very dear to herself. Putting on gloves  
she zipped up her one piece all the way up to her neck, she had found that if it  
was even left slightly open to show the top of her breasts they would pop out of  
the suit as soon as she tried to do anything.  
Looking at her 3D mapping  
device, Kaely found a jewelry store on 1st street that held her interest.

"With exquisite pieces only dreamed of, Gotham Jewelers sport all kinds of  
diamonds and rubies for your convenience... well it is definitely convenient."  
Kaely read from the add she had found on the net. "Sounds perfect." She scrolled  
into the building and found the blue prints and the security devices that had  
been added to ensure the safety of their precious stones.  
"Bah, only level 8  
security. Tsk tsk, you would have thought that they were ASKING for trouble.  
What do you think Bast?" Kaely asked her tabby cat who had just jumped through  
the middle of the hologram to get Kaely's attention.  
"What is it beautiful?  
We'll be leaving soon, don't worry." She spoke to her cat.  
The cat rolled  
its eyes and fell asleep on her bed. Figuring that when her owner came home from  
her job, she would eventually try to talk to her properly.  
Kaely petted  
Bast's head and gave her a kiss on the nose before she headed out into the  
night. Kaely had a special fascination with cats but had no interest of becoming  
Catwoman 2, she didn't want to be constantly compared to her predecessor. Plus  
Catwoman stole for kicks, Kaely stole for people she had once known. Selling the  
stones she stole on the black market for an outrageous underpricing of its worth  
and donating around 70% of her criminal income every month to charities for rape  
victims. Nobody knew that it was her, and Kaely didn't mind. She didn't really  
want people to know what she had been through during her early childhood.

Bast trailed her owner silently. She watched everything that Kaely did  
carefully in case she might have to intervene on her behalf. Bast was not a very  
big cat, mind you, but she had excessively long and vicious claws. As she had  
been a stray before Kaely took her in, and strays, well, they got experimented  
on. After all, who is going to miss the animals that roam the city at night?  
Injected with mountain lion and human genes targeted at her fighting skills and  
intelligence, Bast had the IQ level of about a seven year old human and the  
ferocity of a full grown mountain lion. Kaely was her child in Bast's eyes and  
Bast would kill anyone trying to hurt her or at least die trying. She carried a  
small camera in the retina of one eye because of an old battle wound, parts of  
her eye had to have been replaced artificially. Having a camera follow Kaely  
around everywhere came as a great asset as she could review whatever footage  
that Bast captured to learn more about her opponent and better her fighting  
techniques. Bast watched as Kaely entered a large building undetected,  
G-o-th-aa-m J-eh-w-eh-l-ers Bast sounded out in her head, she couldn't speak  
ape, but she could read it. Suddenly Bast's ears perked up as she heard  
something else enter the store behind Kaely. She yowled a warning and followed  
it by smell into the store, much as she hated to admit it, Kaely was probably  
capable of disarming whatever it was... Bast halted in between steps and inhaled  
deeply, the scent was human... But Bast smelled bat.  
Kaely lifted up the  
perfectly cut circle of glass that she had sliced out of the display case with  
an electronic laser.  
"Another common jewel thief, I should have known." A  
deep, masculine voice spoke from behind her. Kaely didn't stop to turn around as  
she received the direct feed from Bast's eyes, ears, and nose and had known he  
was there. Batman she thought with a smile, this should be interesting.  
"It  
looks so beautiful in its case..." Kaely murmured, gesturing to a gold chain  
sporting fist-sized rubies.  
"It does, that's why you should keep it ther-"  
Batman began but was cut off as Kaely said:  
"But it would look SO much nicer  
on me," she held it up to her neck and turned around for Batman to see.

Kaely's first reaction to seeing Batman was awe, he was almost an unearthly  
being, after all not everyone looks good in spandex. He was lithe and muscular  
and would probably have been a master thief that even Kaely would have respected  
if fate had turned him down that path. She wondered for an instant if she should  
use her mind reading powers to find out who he was under his mask. No, she  
frowned inwardly, that would be too easy... If I can hold him down long enough  
then I'll unmask him myself, I can be patient. Kaely had once met a monk that  
had waited for eighteen years to become a member of a Buddhist tribe in the  
mountains. She had taken that from him with ease and now she could be patient  
for however long it was needed to get what she wanted.  
Batman made a lunge  
for the necklace in Kaely's hand, but she took a step back and said, "Uh uh uh!  
Say please first!"  
"If I say please will you give it back?" Batman asked,  
positive that he couldn't trust this girl.  
"No, but I'd like to hear you say  
it anyways." Kaely replied as she slowly began backing up against a wall. Batman  
took the bait and cornered her against the left wall scarcely believing his  
luck, captured already... Well this was easy.  
Kaely grinned like the  
Cheshire Cat and traced an invisible line on Batman's arm which turned his skin  
to goose flesh where she touched under the suit. "Looks like you've got me,  
love."  
Kaely blinked slowly and the command to hack the Batmobile's  
navigation system commenced.  
"So it would seem." Batman concurred, somewhat  
reluctant to let her out of his grasp.  
"Let's play a game before you leave me  
for the cops." Kaely suggested softly, leaning up against the wall.  
"What  
kind of game?" Batman asked suspiciously, wary of the criminal in front of him.

"A guessing game, here, I'll go first. I like silver more than gold." Kaely  
tossed the gold chain and ruby necklace carelessly back into the case where it  
belonged.  
Batman stared at her. Never had he seen a thief give back what  
they stole on a whim because they preferred a different metal than what it was  
made of.  
"Your turn." Kaely told him smugly.  
"I prefer handcuffs to bare  
wrists." Batman replied.  
Kaely sighed and put her wrists towards him, ready  
to be handcuffed and said, "You're missing the point Batman, you are supposed to  
tell me something about yourself." Just a little closer thought Kaely eagerly,  
just a little bit...  
Batman stepped forward.  
Got you! Kaely thought with  
glee, and a smile lit up her face. Blinking twice, she sent the command for the  
batman to come and retrieve her instead of Batman.  
"Because you gave back  
what you stole your prison sentence should be relatively short..." Batman was it  
off when his own vehicle of transportation crashed through the wall and hit him  
from behind the head. He passed out instantly collapsing in a heap at Kaely's  
feet.  
Briefly, the temptation to unmask the great Batman grew almost to much  
for Kaely but she decided against it. She would get to know Batman first before  
ruining his life. Kaely leaned down and pulled up Batman's mask just enough to  
reveal his cheeks and mouth. Giving him a kiss on the cheek and leaving a  
lipstick imprint she rolled the cowl back down to cover his face once more.

Hoping into the Batmobile, Kaely called for Bast and waited until they were  
both loaded into the hovership and took off. Reveling in her victory, Kaely  
landed in a field just outside of Gotham and took her laser cutter and began  
some crafty 'artwork' on the side of the Batmobile.  
When she was finally  
finished, gigantic, ugly white scratches spelled THE MISTRESS in capital letter  
across the Batmobile. Changing it so it was camouflaged, yes Batman she had  
picked up on that handy little trick, and flew it home.  
Deciding to send it  
back to Batman now lest it be tracked later, Kaely cleared its flying log,  
mileage, speed, anything that might lead Batman back to herself.  
To send it  
back, Kaely roughly estimated the time Batman would wake up and calculated how  
fast the Batmobile would have to be to get there Just before the police arrived.  
After sending the command for the Batmobile to go back to Gotham Jewelers Kaely  
collapsed on her bed, ready for sleep.  
"MROWWW!" Bast called from the base  
of her bed, to lazy to jump up herself.  
Using the last of her mental  
strength, Kaely used her animal talking powers she had stolen from a vet in  
Philly.  
"Get up! Come on, you can sleep laterrrr!" Bast called to her  
impatiently.  
"Fine, come herrrre." Kaely tried to speak with her best cat  
accent but it came out more ape then she realized.  
Taking all of the retina  
footage Kaely observed everything that Batman had done and how the actions she  
took affected him.  
When she touched him she noticed how he stiffened and  
when the threw the necklace back how surprised his body language suggested he  
was. She did something to him that made him feel uncomfortable and totally at  
ease at the same time. Kaely found herself watching herself roll up the Batman's  
mask and planting a kiss on his cheek over and over again. The memory of his  
slight stubble and high cheekbones on her lips was imprinted on Kaely's memory.  
Like it or not Kaely felt something for the masked vigilantly despite the fact  
that their meeting circumstances had been less than preferable.  
Finally  
crawling under her covers Kaely tried to get some sleep, with Bast standing  
lookout on the windowsill.  
That night Kaely fell asleep watching herself  
kiss Batman over and over again. Batman reminded her of someone she had once  
loved, but Kaely pushed the thought away beneath the heavy curtain of sleep. She  
would see Batman's face eventually she vowed to herself, only half awake, even  
if it kills me.


	3. Chapter 3

**Sorry for the font size if it comes out weird, I'll try to fix it.**

**highlander348 : Thank you so much for the review, and I will totally try to incorporate your idea into my story!**

**Guest: Sorry about the confusion about how I spelled Dana's name, my computer autocorrects it into Danna everytime therefore it is easier just to leave it be. But I'll remember your comment for future times when I talk about her.**

**Fanus Obscurus: Shapeshifting and shapestealing, those are pretty awesome powers aren't they?**

**nomoresunshine: Yes, Kaely could have read him when she kissed him, but that would have been too easy is how she figured that she would wait to unmask him. She can turn her powers on and off as she likes, that's why she hasn't gone crazy yet! Sorry for the confusion about this, I will try to make it more clear in the next chapter.**

**Leech Chapter Three**  
As Terry McGinnis woke, he groaned loudly. What the hell had happened? As he stood up and rubbed the back of his head he realized he still had the Batman suit on. Crap, he looked around frantically for the Batmobile... Maybe it's still here he thought hopefully. Taking a step outside of the wrecked building, Terry used his locator to call for it. (Courtesy of Kaely, it had been reset to respond to him.) After a few minutes, he saw it speeding towards him and hopped inside, there was no chance he would be able to go to school today. It was already... He checked his watch, 6:30 in the morning! As Terry set the Batmobile on autopilot back to the Batcave, he leaned back and thought about the criminal who gave back what she stole. He didn't even know her name he realized with a start, she had never told him and he had never asked. Suddenly wondering why he hasn't heard Bruce's voice yelling in his ear yet, Terry pressed on his communicator.  
"Mr. Wayne?" He asked in a scratchy voice.  
All he got back was static. Damn it! When the Batmobile had hit him in the head it must have messed up their transmission frequency he thought, angry that he hasn't been paying close enough attention to realize that the girl was up to something.  
Now I just need to get back home and fake a cold, oh there's Mr. Wayne now he thought relieved, NOW he could have Bruce yelling at him.  
"MCGINNIS!" Bruce yelled at the top of his lungs, which was actually fairly loud. "Didn't I tell you never to let criminals joyride in the Batmobile?!"  
Terry stumbled out of the Batmobile and for the first time noticed Kaely's artwork.  
"Shit." He said, if he had been in trouble for letting her escape, now he was screwed for letting her graffiti the Batmobile.  
"Well, at least we know her name now." Said Terry.  
"Hah! We're lucky she decided to GIVE IT BACK! Can you imagine how much money this would make on the black market?!"  
Terry hung his head, he had failed his mentor and it grated heavily on his pride. Taking off his mask, Terry began to hang up his costume. He turned to face Bruce and said, "Mr. Wayne, I promise that I'll try harder next time, I really will. She won't get away from us again-"  
"McGinnis, what is that?" Bruce asked in a deadly voice.  
"What is what?" Terry replied genuinely confused.  
"That." Bruce pointed to his left cheek.  
Terry turned and looked at his reflection and saw the imprint of Kaely's lips upon his face. For a second he was kind of fascinated with the turn their relationship had taken, but that was before the fear set in. If The Mistress had unmasked him and seen his face then it would no doubt be all over the net by lunch.  
"McGinnis... You know what this means, don't you?" Bruce asked him cautiously, silently observing how Terry's fingertips still touched the lipstick mark of The Mistress. Bruce watched warily as Terry's eyes grew hard and cold as he turned to face him and say, "We have a DNA sample for The Mistress."  
Bruce stared at him for a minute, the fact that Terry put the fact that a dangerous criminal capable at besting the Batman was at loose in front of his own identity being compromised gave Bruce a surging feeling of pride. His successor would give Gotham's villains a definite run for their money, sometimes even literally. A small smile lifted up the corners of his mouth, as he got sample and examined it under a microscope he watched out of the corner of his eye how Terry slumped in his chair, defeated.  
Terry was upset and angry, he couldn't believe that this had happened to him. The Mistress had him to his advantage and Terry was aware that he was now at her mercy if he wished his nighttime habits to stay anonymous.  
"Mr. Wayne?" Terry asked quietly.  
"Yes McGinnis?" Bruce responded, still looking at his out of date manual microscope.  
"Can you do something to help me get out of school today?"  
Bruce looked at his watch and noticed how early in the morning it was already, Terry would barely get two hours of sleep and one look at the despairing teen's face was enough to tell him that he would just be sent home within ten minutes of arriving.  
"I'll see what I can do." He responded after a little while.  
"Thanks Mr. Wayne."  
"Your welcome, Terry." Bruce said so quietly that Terry didn't hear the use of his first name.  
Terry walked up towards the flight of stairs leading to the many guest rooms that he had yet to explore. Trudging up the stairs to whatever room was unoccupied, he thought about his future. For the first time in a while, Terry began to reevaluate his life, did he really want this for himself? Did he really want to be this way? A voice in the back of his mind whispered about his failing relationship. He knew that Danna liked him, but was almost bipolar in the way that she would go on about how he never spent time with her during the few days he did. They were constantly breaking up and then making up again sometimes mere hours later. Maybe I should look for other options... Thought Terry uncertainly.  
A couple minutes of deep thought however, soon left him exhausted and he simply passed out on the landing.  
A few hours later he was woken by the sound of shouting:  
"McGinnis! Come down here, now!"  
Running down the stairs at a record pace for someone so tired, Terry arrived in the Batcave just as Bruce was pulling up the results of the DNA sample.  
Terry stared.  
"What does it mean?" He asked.  
"It means our thief is more dangerous then we originally anticipated." Replied Bruce, as they both watched in awe.  
The Mistress' DNA wasn't really her own. She had no gene couplings of genetic makeup of any kind. Bruce had separated it into two different containers and the one he had touched had mutated to match his exact spirals.  
"She's a shape changer?" Terry wondered aloud.  
"No, not quite." Bruce began, "Imagine more of shape-stealer. I also believe that she can steal other, less tangible things. Such as confidence, prudence, thoughtfulness, you get the idea. But the true extent of her powers we can't be sure. I would need to study her brain signals to get a more complete picture."  
"That means I have to capture her." Terry said in a deadpan manner, his thoughts once turning again to his possibly not-so-secret identity.  
"It does."  
"I'll be ready by night."  
"Get some sleep McGinnis."  
"I'll try Mr. Wayne."  
Terry began to go back yet another set of stairs to exit the Batcave when Bruce called to him.  
"Terry, don't let her touch you. In anyway, she is a master of everything if my theory about her is correct she knows how to play the game. She's like Selina in that way, don't let her mess with your head, okay?"  
"Sure Mr. Wayne, I'll try."  
"Unfortunately, it may already be too late." Bruce whispered to himself anxiously, Terry might have already been poisoned by her.


	4. Chapter 4

Leech Chapter Four  
When Kaely woke, she was surprised to see that Bast had left the warmth of her bed and instead sat watch on the windowsill facing the street.  
"Bast? What are you doing sweetheart?" Kaely called, lifting her head up from the comfy pillows.  
Bast ignored her, she was trying to think of why a human might have faint smells of bat. The happenings of last night still confused her, why had the male gotten so close to Kaely? During the night, Bast knew that men found Kaely attractive but the bat-man as she was calling him (how accurate this name was she didn't know) gave out different scents then most male humans.  
Watching Bast stare out the window, Kaely thought about maybe trying to talk to her but frankly the act of changing her powers only held up for as long as she could concentrate and it was extremely taxing on her strength. Plus, it gave her a headache in the morning and that was always best avoided before school.  
Looking at her options for clothes, she settled on flare jeans and green tee-shirt that when she lifted her arms above her head rose over her belly button. Slipping on her Nikes she looked up for the first time before noticing the she hadn't changed into the "day-time" Kaely Tress. Slowly, her freckles began to appear like bubbles rippling to the surface of a white lake.  
Cringing at her reflection, Kaely realized that this was how she was seen by everyone: the kind of ugly and blemished figure that cities with high crime rates always produce. But at least this way she fell below the radar and wasn't all that remarkable to anyone. She knew that if she walked outside with her actual face, she would attract attention like a magnet.  
As Kaely reluctantly changed, she felt the common tingle of slight pain in the base of her skull. Taking slow breaths, she regained her concentration enough to make sure that all of her features were correct and in place.  
Walking into her kitchen, she wondered whether she had time for breakfast. Checking her small clock that hung above the stove Kaely saw she had around seven minutes to get to school. She looked around desperately for something besides a candy bar to eat and found a strawberry flavored breakfast tube in her pantry. After stuffing it in her mouth she ran outside and made a scramble for her car, her mouth still stuffed with her hasty breakfast. Realizing after she had pulled onto the hoverway that she was still tired, Kaely carefully slid the hidden panel away on her dashboard to reveal a neat stack of gold pills with silver flecks floating around inside. Grabbing one she swallowed it without hesitation, I will not be falling asleep in class! She thought triumphantly to herself as she sped down the road at just barley the speed limit. The pills hidden away in her car were an extremely high grade of energy tablets, complicatedly enhanced to give you a full twelve hours of rest in a few minutes with no side affects. She got them from an old friend back in Symetri, well, friend was probably not the best word for what she was.  
Tessela Black was the only person Kaely had every met that seemed to understand her. Occasionally even joining her in her "nights out" Tessela rolled better in the criminal side of things then she ever would following the rules. An evil genius is what Kaely called her, because of her obsession with the human body. Constantly trying to make it better and more efficient, Tessela had supplied Kaely with the energy pill prototypes on the condition that she would report her experience with them via Bast who on occasion took letters from Kaely to Tessela. "An opporrrrrrtunity to keep strrrrong and fit" Was Bast's opinion being the mail carrier for the two women.  
Kaely remembered Tessela with her gold hair flipped over her shoulder as she patiently explained how according to the conclusive data she had collected that Kaely was immune. Immune... To everything. Because of her unique DNA, her organs and cells could mutate in an instant to fight disease. That meant having to cut a couple of days of school every once and a while to avoid suspicion, that had been what gave her away to Tessela, her seeming inability to catch a cold.  
This time, I will be more careful. Kaely vowed as she on e again pulled into the parking lot.  
Breaking into a run her watch counted the seconds that she had left until school started. 50 seconds-she sprinted down the halls, 30 seconds-she opened the door to her classroom, 2seconds-she sat down, the bell sounded.

Four hours later and approaching lunch reassured Kaely that school was nothing but useless, who needs information in small dainty sips when you can have all of it in one large gulp? She eyed the clock from across the room, she needed to stretch her legs. And her neck hurt from having been bent over so much for too long, her legs stayed cramped against her side as the desperation to get out of the classroom started in on her. Nipping at her heels like a small dog, herding her towards the door of the classroom.  
"Kaely? Are you even listening?" Max hissed under her breath, poking Kaely in the arm.  
"Hmm?" Kaely asked distracted, still thinking about how badly her neck hurt. "The answer is oxygen combined with carbon dioxide with a pinch of iron-oxide."  
"How do you do that?" Max asked her, feeling strange about this new girl.  
"What?" Kaely replied confused, what had she done wrong NOW?  
"Just zone off but still know what is happening around you? Terry does the same thing except he doesn't have a clue what's going on around him."  
Battle reflexes Kaely thought, able to think while my body stays alert. She stored the comment about about Terry in her brain for later observation.  
"I dunno, it just happens?" Kaely offered, knowing that even someone as dull as Nash wouldn't except that excuse.  
Max narrowed her eyes. Something was definitely strange about this girl... No, it was probably just Danna's ranting about how Kaely was "trouble" and going to "steal Terry away from her" that she had been forced to listen to earlier when Danna had picked her up for school that had her on edge. He might just leave you if you keep on with this, Kaely or not, Max had refrained from commenting during their drive. Danna was going just a little bit crazy, Terry was not the cheating type and he had plenty of opportunities especially with his "job" that took up so much of his time. Maxine was willing to bet her whole life savings that there were some exceptionally hot super villains that would be worth anyone's dime.  
"On the sort of subject of Terry, have you seen him today?" Max asked.  
"Oh, I haven't? Have you? Don't you guys usually meet at the front of the school? I got here late." Kaely replied.  
"Yea, But we never saw him. You should have SEEN Danna when she noticed that both you AND Terry were missing, she had a fit!" Max watched Kaely's mouth stretch into a grin and saw her cheeks begin to color. "You wouldn't happen to know why she was so distressed...would you?"  
Kaely's smile grew larger, "Of course not. I just think that that it's funny the things some people will assume if they're insecure."  
"Surrrrre..." Max said, sounding vaguely like Bast. "If that's how it's going to be then forget I ever asked."  
Kaely's grin grew larger and she went back to daydreaming.

After doing her homework, Kaely pondered on whether to go out tonight or not.  
"Hmmm... What do you think my little lioness?" She asked Bast while caressing her fur as the cat ignored her and kneaded her knee with her claws. Ignoring the pinpricks of pain, Kaely decided that she needed another day off from being the unnoticeable girl who hung around with the social middlemen of her school.  
She heard Bast's cry of indignation when Kaely's knee bones lengthened and got stronger as well as her muscles tightening leaving none of the baby fat that her disguise carried.  
Kaely leisurely scrolled through the projected maps and names unable to decide. Jewelry? Famous artifacts? She had no idea.  
"Maybe... I'll just walk around a bit, what do you think Bast?"  
Bast hissed at her, holding a bit of a grudge for being shoved pushed off her comfy knee.  
"I'll take that as a yes then." Kaely patted Bast on the head much to her annoyance as to Bast this felt like her brain was being shook up inside her head as well as giving her a headache afterward.  
Time to go out, thought Kaely a spring in her step as she got into her costume. Maybe this time the Batman will put up more of a fight...


End file.
